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We are pointing here to a subjet too often associated to the name of Thailand.

Full Monty Bar - Patong Beach

To start of with, I have to say I've
never been involved in prostitution as a customer. As
such, I will not be able to give you much detailed information
from the customer's point of view. I can however assure you
that discovering the Asian sex trade as an observer from the
outside is a much more difficult task.
Anyway, I am sure your imagination can help you to get an idea on how
it can be. In fact it can help you to have an idea but big are the chances
that you will still be far from reality!
If I hadn’t spent time learning the Thai language to
a fluent level, I would have never had the possibility to
enter the life of some bar girls and give them a chance to
expose their "true" feelings, hopes and fears. I
would have not been told all these stories that allow me to
write today. It is very hard for these girls to open up and
speak about themselves, especially with a man. However, once
the contact and a relationship of mutual trust are established,
all stories look alike or close.
Moreover, I have been living with a Thai woman for several years and married
since 2006. I have been able to learn and understand a vast number of
things from her who’s had to quit university and her accounting
degree in order to help her family, yet without choosing the path of
prostitution.
So I will try to explain as good as possible what I have discovered from
many different people through their personal stories and feelings.

The following pages have not been written to encourage
people to give prostitution a reason to be but on the contrary, to explain
the problem and reveal some realities too often hidden.
If these few pages can help you to better understand what
is going on in Thailand and maybe modify
a bit your perception of Thai women, then they will have reached
their aim.

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You will find a great home feeling and a calm neighborhood to welcome you when coming back from tours, excursions and big nights out.

Not all the same :

Orchid flower vendor - Patong Beach

Before anything, there is a point to clarify. Even though prostitution is extremely common in Thaialnd and Phuket's toutristy areas, all thai girls in Phuket are not prostitutes.
This might seem like an obvious thing to say if you've never been in Thailand, but believe me, as soon as you reach the Patong Beach area in Phuket, you will will have a hard time finding a girls that is not in the sex business in the night unless you are a good observer.

This is important to say since if you judge by some tourist's behaviour, it sometimes look like all thai girls are "for sale".
It's undeniable that Thai girls are very attractive and sexy.
But even more is the fact that no tourist has any chance to have a relationship in a few weeks holiday with a "normal" girl who is not a prostitute. Building a real relationship in Thailand that is not only based on money is a real big job that takes several months or more, compared to a day or more in Western cultures.

Most families still teach the girls that they have to be a virgine to get married and have to save themselves for only one man. So being a tourist on holiday, how to imagine having sex with a thai girl who would not be a prostitute looking for money?
I know only very few foreigners who're having good relationship with Thai girls who've never been involved in prostitution in Phuket. These people are well aware of the Thai culture and have been coming to Thailand for years or work there.
If you just got there and plan to get a real girlfriend, chances are you will be disapointed in the long run.

All this is not what we would like to hear when we arrive in Thailand but it's a fact. Now you might want to experience it yourself...
Feel free to contact us for more info if needed or advice if you are already involved with a girl and you are not sure what's going on.

How does it work ?

Whatever your beliefs and thoughts are on the subject,
the discovery of prostitution in the touristy parts of Thailand is a shock it is very hard to
be prepared for before end. For many people (especially males), all these
girls seem to be waiting for them and longing to go to bed with anyone.
Sex tourists will have arguments such as “but I am helping her
to support her family in need for money”. They might even believe they "make
them feel good" by buying their bodies for the night. Thw question is how good can it get when you get abused two or three times a day almost everyday of the year?...
Before we go any further, there is an extract from my journal explaining
it in my own words upon my arrival in the country for the first time.

I think I could describe these girls as being many tempting sexy little friends
of one night only! In fact, even though the principle is not much different,
I can not speak about them as prostitutes. Most of these 18-30
yo little ladies have absolutely nothing of the vulgarity and obscene side of the
prostitutes we can see in some dodgy Western city streets.
However, the extent of the profession here exceeds imagination!
Is it possible to imagine a town full of bars, strip clubs and discotheques, these same bars being full
of girls with model like looking bodies?
Well, this is basically what
we find here (in appearance) every night!
But where it hurts whoever has some sentiments left in him is that these
girls, as beautiful and caring they might be, they are only interested
in one thing… the 1 to 2000 Thb (Thai money) whoever Farang (westerners
nickname) will give to her to buy her little body for the night...

To resist the temptation is far from being easy and
any man who's ever been in Thailand will confirm my words, unless
they're too shy to admit it.
This being said, I have never
been interested in this business for several reasons.
By fear of disease; it is admited that aproximately 75% of the Thai bar girls are infected by AIDS.
By disgust to the idea of buying a human body.
The dread
of lack of any sentiments and love and the partaking in the destruction
of someone’s life.
In the end,
I guess it is a bit of that all.
I have always been lucky enough to limit myself to friendly and verbal
relationships with these queens of the night.
This is the reason why today
I am able to write in a detached manner while still knowing what is happening
in those circles.

...Some
queens of the night, yes but some queens we can sometimes see with
fear in their eyes, while thinking about what they have just done or what
they will have to do…
Because of all that, I feel myself a bit uncomfortable while walking in
some very touristy streets with some of my Thai female friends! It is
a bit like if all in the sudden, I was drawn into this massive glue, formed
by this mass of sex tourism in Thailand…

Kangaroo Bar - Patong Beach
- Phuket

Even though there are bars with working
girls all over Phket island (and everywhere in the country),
Patong beach is probably the most active location on the west
coast of Thailand.
Something to point out however is that compared with Europe,
a vast majority (not all) of the girls are working for themselves
and are not under mafia control. These girls are somewhat
employees of the bar where they work and make people drink as much as possible. Their job is to make you spend as much money as possible at the place.
The difference with a usual bar tender is in fact that they can be taken off work at anytime
by the customers for the night. In order to do that, the man
will have to pay a certain amount of money to the bar in order
to take the girl away. This is called the “bar fine”.
It will compensate the fact that the bar is loosing an employee, making it less atractive for other customers passing by.
From there on, the girls are free to fix their own price,
which they will keep for themselves totally.
As such, the prices vary a lot depending on the girl, the time of night, the season and more. Another
particularity is that the girl will stay all night long with
her client unless agreed otherwise.
Despite the nature of their job, these bar girls can be extremely
jealous (as most Thai women by the way) to the
point that they can even start fights when seeing one of their
ex-customers taking another girl the next day.
I am absolutely serious when I say that and remember some
friends showing up the next morning with high eel marks on
the face…!

Everyone looses in that game...

Despite all excuses prostitution
customers can find, these girls will never be "happy"
with their money. I happened to hear that “taking a
girl out in Europe was actually more expensive than paying
for a prostitute in Asia, these Thai bar girls being more
docile on top of it”. I have to say that these kind
of macho comments in complete lack of any moral are just good
to make you puke!
Anyway, since everyone
looses and sometimes a lot, i guess we can say there is some kind of justice in all that. As Thai bar
girls do not have much more to loose, I guess you see who is
the biggest looser in that cruel “game”.
Some men become just like little puppies in front of a bone
and completely loose any common sense and politeness. I have
sometimes spent time sitting in the corner of a bar, looking
at customers playing their usual game. It can be quite scary to see some adults and especially dirty old
men acting like 15 yo children in front of these girls. I
do not want to discriminate people because of their age, ethnic origines or
physical appearance but people should not
come to Asia to do such things. Before acting as such this kind of individuals should wonder what would be their feelings when seing foreigners coming to have sex with their 18 yo daughters in their home country...

Everyone plays a game

I must say I have some admiration for those
girls, despite the disgust they can have for their customers, who are
still able to smile and make them believe they love them and want
to be with them "so much". But admiration can in turn fade away to become pity when
I hear what they have to do with these sex tourists, just arrived in Thailand
to do what they will never have a chance to do in their home country without having trouble with the law.

Some people loose a lot. I have seen people loosing a
fortune, going up to a brand new house they were planning
to live in with their new “girlfriend”.
But seriously,
who in a Western country and culture could be so naïve to believe
that a young 25 yo Thai lady could possibly become mad in love
with a 45+ yo man she has just met, while barely speaking
his language? As crazy as it can seem, this is unfortunately
the case of most people and what most sex tourist think, ignoring Thai culture and how wrong they can be about
this all.